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Tag: Nanny State

Well, lord knows, I’m not the biggest fan of Teresa May, but I doubt she’s King Herod! What’s behind this headline? Barry Kushner, Labour cabinet member for children’s services, said babies in poorer parts of Liverpool were 50% more likely…

When Moira gets scared, she cuts herself. “It’s my way of taking control.” Right now she’s very scared. In a few days she faces a tribunal that will judge whether she is entitled to her disability benefit. A normal…

A report from Essex County Council’s health overview committee analysed the increasing national and local trend in the prevalence of obesity in children aged four to 11. The analysis showed in Basildon and Castle Point obesity was prominent, particularly with…

Restaurants have been ordered by the government to cut the size of puddings or face being named and shamed. Yup, I’m with you there, Sean..! According to The Times, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt told a private meeting of more than…

“In the 1970s and 80s women across Britain and across the world took to the streets to ‘Reclaim the Night’. Women and men campaigned together for safer streets, for stronger action to stop physical violence against women, and to argue…

An article on Polish emigration has this little gem: ”I think Britain should leave the European Union. Then my brother and sister will come back to Poland,” half-joked Katarzyna Górecka. But the 44-year-old, who works in a tuck shop in…

Must be a LibDem policy! Even within the Liberal Democrats, not everyone is convinced. The MP for North Devon, Nick Harvey, certainly doesn’t think it’s the right way to spend £1bn and believes his party leader has wasted such a…

Aditya Chakrabortty on the ‘unfairness’ of progress: What is powerlessness? Try this for a definition: you stand to lose the home where you’ve lived for more than 20 years and raised two boys. And all your neighbours stand to lose…

A woman with learning disabilities who died at Basildon Hospital while awaiting tests on gallstones was not fed for five days, an inquest heard. Her sister, Catherine Butler- Smith, visited every day and tried in vain to speak to senior…

It will be interesting to see if any newspaper covers the fact that members of Britain’s armed forces appeared to join in with Scottish football fans as they sang sectarian songs at a match yesterday. ‘Appeared to’..? Well, did they,…

As a children’s food guru, Annabel Karmel built a multi-million-pound empire telling parents how to cook healthy meals for youngsters. And after lucrative contracts with the likes of Disney, retail chain BHS signed her up to develop a children’s menu…

Phillipa Perry (last seen whining about attitudes to disability) on those alcohol consumption figures and why we should just shut up and tell our betters the truth if we know what’s good for us: If we put to one side mistakes…

An 18-year-old girl has been killed after her car crashed into a telegraph pole weeks after she passed her driving test. Hannah Lodge was driving towards Langtoft on the B1249 when her grey Suzuki smashed into a telegraph pole. I…

Lynsey Hanley (again) missing the point: When Zadie Smith defends public libraries, you know that it’s not because it is fashionable to do so: it’s because, in her estimation, she owes her life to them. Really? According to popular music,…

Imagine prohibiting cigarette sales to people born after 2000. Phasing out tobacco will stop the next generation taking up smoking. Actually I’d be surprised if this is really new and hasn’t been bandied around nannying and anti-tobacco circles previously, but…

About OoL

We are political and apolitical – some belong to parties, some do not. Some are self-professed libertarians, some are small “c” conservatives, some classical liberals – the names are varied. However we all have one thing in common, a love of personal liberty; that casualty of the encroaching state as it seeks to micromanage our lives. [Link in main menu]